Netanyahu bloc leads after half of Israeli votes counted but no majority

The camp of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ahead of his rival’s opposition bloc but still short of a majority on Wednesday after 50 percent of votes were counted in Israel’s pivotal general election.
Voters turned out in the highest numbers in decades to give their verdict on Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has pushed the country sharply to the right and unleashed a wave of wars in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Following the vote, both Netanyahu and his rival Gadi Eisenkot vowed to form a government despite neither being projected to win a majority.
After 51.8 percent of ballots were counted, Netanyahu’s bloc was shown to have 55 of the 12...